Seal Beach Police Department detectives have arrested a suspect in a recent Seal Beach bank robbery. The arrest took place in the Santee area. Cypress and Los Alamitos detectives participated in the arrest. Detectives were piecing together information about a stolen pickup truck and the May 23 US Bank branch robbery suspect when they learned that a suspect with a similar description had just robbed a Carlsbad bank.
Upon arriving in the Santee area, detectives spotted the suspect as he walked through a fast food restaurant parking lot. He was arrested without incident. According to Seal Beach Police Sgt. Ron La Velle, public information officer for the Seal Beach Police Department, the suspect has been identified as Johnny Howard Hecker, 33, of Chula Vista. According to La Velle, Hecker has been linked to at least two recent bank robberies. Hecker was booked into the San Diego County Jail on robbery charges. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
According to La Velle, the cooperative efforts of the Cypress, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach Police Departments were facilitated by their shared use of communications offered by the West Cities Police Communications group. “West-Comm,” as it is commonly known, is housed at the SBPD headquarters, but provides emergency communications to all three cities and the Orange County Park Rangers.
The Seal Beach US Bank branch in the Ralphs Grocery Store in the Towne Center was robbed at about 4:20 p.m., May 23. The suspect was described by witnesses as a white man, 30-35 years old, 5 feet 11 inches, weighing 170 pounds, with a thin build, brown hair, clean-shaven, wearing blue pants, a long sleeve blue shirt under a white t-shirt and wearing black shoes. He was also described as having a large tattoo on his neck.
